I honestly dont care because we have enough good players and aside from Falcao, there are no world beaters on the market. I dont care that much are Huntelaar or Lewondowski. They are good but they are no aguero, suarez, rvp, rooney, etc...
We could use some midfield cover as Ramsey is not good enough yet.

All I hope is that we resign walcott and dumping some dead weight would be a bonus.

The problem is not personnel as people like to point out. How many of you really dont think we have good enough players to score against a team like villa who conceded 8 goals against the manchesters. And we could only register one $#@!ty shot on target? Even they had 4 shots on goal. Clearly the problem extends far beyond the players.

It's a combination of management and personnel. It's not just one or the other. Seriously - we have players like Gervinho and Ramsey lining up for us, and up front we have absolutely zero options, unlike the title-chasing teams. Even Chelsea with their striker crisis have Torres and Sturridge - we are one injury away from Chamakh starting for us.

Since our 'glory days' we have had a habit of persisting with players that are not good enough for a team that wants to be successful. Denilson, Bendtner, Eboue, Almunia, etc. Guys that play way too many times. At least with seasons passed we had the quality through our squad to carry such dross but that's not the case now, or so it seems. I know Ramsey is young and I'm being unfair in a way but we need to start taking things serious or we will continue to fall behind.

I don't mind players that are not full of flare, trickery, pace etc - so long as they do the basics correct and keep the game ticking. Our sub-par players don't even do these things.

And then you have management that throws on a DM (Coquelan) in the final few minutes against both Villa and Everton. Why not Arsha, why not Rosicky? Playing for draws is fine against City or Utd but Everton are considered our CL place rivals and Villa....were in the bottom 3 ffs. I guess even Arsene has lost a little faith in the team.

He keeps going on about our shot confidence and he's got a point but victory over Spurs and then Montpellier should have seen us kick on. We have nearly a full strength team so we can't use the injury excuse anymore.

*kneejerk* Yes as you can tell I'm a little pissed with our timid performances.

How we conduct ourselves in January will be interesting.

In years passed guys like Diaby and Rosicky [+even RvP] could stay injured for a season long and we'd still mount a respectable title challenge but eventually crumble due to those injuries. Now we need these guys to come back and lead us to respectable performances. Huge difference in the quality of our personnel. I'm interested to see if these new fiscal deals will breathe any life into the 'ambitions' of the club

Sigh.

Anyway this is from an Arsenal forum. Pretty much sums the season up to this point:

12 behind first place.

6 points behind 4th place.

Sitting below Everton, Tottenham and West Brom.

Having won only 5 out of 14 (FOURTEEN) games!!!! Freaking 5 only!!!!

Of the 5 wins, 2 came against sides with 10 players only.

I'm sorry but if that's not the definition of a poor team, then I don't know what is!

Very telling when you look at it like that. This season will now be about survival - our league form is horrible and somehow we are still in the mix for 4th!

I'm already weary about Swansea.
I'll be honest, I haven't kept completely up to date with their recent form, but Laudrup is a pretty good manager, and Swansea can turn on the style when they really need to. I'm not too confident about that [tomorrow's] game at least.

Make that 5 wins in 15 games, 2 against 10 man teams. 4 losses in 15, 2 at home.

A lot of tension at the club right now, and Wenger is going to get roasted by the press and fans alike. I just hope we don't crumble any further. I struggle to see how we're gonna get into the top 4 unless we dramatically improve as a team.

We have the players to finish 4th and outplay most teams in the league.
Then again, QPR have the players to not be sitting rock bottom of the league.

No urgency is what really irks me. Aside from a 20 min window in the 2nd half we were ridiculously bad

Swansea dominated and deserved to win at least 1-0.

Edit: Oh and, who the hell managed to trick Arsenal into giving Gervinho a contract? We hardly make those 'wenger knows' signings anymore. Santi only came because Malaga needed to sell. Ffs

my biggest problem is the lack of urgency, heart, and fight in the team. Watch almost any other game. even lower teams and see how hard they work. how much it means to them.n Arsenal look $#@!less, uninterested, and complacement. They look like they're out of ideas before they even start.

Maybe the manager has lost the dressing room? Players have left so easily over the years after Wenger 'made them what they are'. Maybe he just doesn't have that conviction he once had.

I don't know.

But I agree with what you say. It's disheartening to see opposition teams/players show so much heart, drive and determination and they probably get paid half of what a our players are 'earning'

If we cannot put ourselves in a strong position at the end of the month, when you consider our fixtures for December, then it will be extremely tough for us in the 2nd half of the season. No matter what happens in January.

I think Rosicky will start tonight. We're taking a young squad apparently. I agree with that decision as we're already qualified and finishing 1st or 2nd shouldn't mean a whole lot cos you can meet Real Madrid finishing 1st or Barca finishing 2nd . Besides, the our key players could do with a breather

Could have been 5 nil. I'm shocked we didn't score from open play - we missed some sitters for sure. A bit gutted we got a pen from Caz's dive ;/, silly Spaniard. Though their player dived just as bad in the closing stages in the box, but the ref didn't fall for it.

It's no surprise that when our midfield comes to the party that we look much more assured. I hope this isn't a one off and we continue playing this kind of football. Best general play since that international break. Since then we've only gotten 2 victories against sides with 10 men but today we played some lovely stuff.

Wilshere man of the match for me. When he moved into the AM role after Caz went off he was dictating the game, and played very well before too